Green Mountain Grills – Online Grill & Smoker

So it was time to get a new grill, my old propane BBQ was about 10-years old, and the burners were going to need to be replaced, again. I found myself at a friend’s house, and they were using a Traeger Pellet Grill, and the food was amazing. I think I’d heard something about pellet grills, but didn’t really know much about them, seeing one in action (and tasting the food that came out of it) put this type of grill on my radar immediately. With a need for a new grill, and my eyes open to another option, the research began!

I looked at a few grill types before deciding to try a pellet grill. I was very familiar with a traditional natural gas/propane grill. I’ve had one of those for many years. I also have friends with a “big green egg” which is a big ceramic insulated egg with a charcoal fire inside, due to the insulation you can get some pretty good temperature control and high-heat from them as well.  Since I was looking to try something new, the traditional propane grill was off the list, and I decided on a pellet grill over a “big green egg” as I wanted something that was remotely controllable and reasonably priced (you can add a kit to a big-green egg to control it, but the kit and the grill itself are quite expensive) and something that would heat-up fast enough for a tired and hungry person to get cooking fast at the end of a long workday.

So what the heck is a “pellet grill”? It’s basically a barbeque that uses small wooden pellets as the fuel source. You can usually tell a pellet grill from the metal box attached to the side of the grill with some controls. That box is a hopper full of wood pellets (that you buy at the hardware store) and inside the grill there is a small combustion chamber that is fed the pellets via an electric auger. The controls on the grill automatically control both the auger and an fan to blow air into the combustion chamber. This control of both the fuel and air means very good control of the temperature inside the grill. Don’t worry, the control box takes care of all that, all you have to do is set the temperature of the grill and it takes care of the rest. The benefits are very good temperature control, the ability to cook at a very wide range of temperatures (from very low “smoke” temperature of 150 degrees) up to around 500 degrees, where a propane grill goes up to. Since the cooking is primarily indirect, this type of grill doesn’t have the “flare-ups” that often happen with propane grills, nor “hot spots” where the temperature is dramatically different than other spots. There’s also no running out of propane (you do need to buy the wood pellets, but at least you can see what you have left in the hopper).  Some grills (like the one I eventually purchased) also offer a temperature probe, so you can cook based not only on the temperature inside the grill, but also the temperature of the meat you are cooking inside it. By the way, pellets are available made of many different types of wood, and since smoking is an option, you have some interesting options of flavors based on the pellets you buy (such as maple, hickory, cherry, etc), another “variable” for your recipes.

Smokers and pellet grills allow you to slow-cook food, and that can be amazing. Pellet grills can cook relatively quickly and at high temperature like a regular bbq, but the challenge is the “slow-cook” part as it relates to a busy life. I don’t ever have five or six or ten hours to do nothing but cook some meat, multi-tasking is key.  So I started looking into pellet grills that can be connected to the internet and/or managed remotely from my cellphone. Traeger seems to be the category brand leader, but getting a Traeger with internet connectivity was going to be way over my price range, probably nearly $2,000 by the time I was done. As I kept researching, I came across Green Mountain Grills (GMG), which fit the bill. Reasonably priced, internet connected and for me the best part is that they offer a pizza oven insert option. I was fortunate to find a local dealer (hardware store) and off I went to check it out. The folks at the hardware store were super knowledgeable, seemed genuinely stoked on the product, use it themselves, and had a few great tips for me.  I purchased the Jim Bowie (mid-sized) grill, some accessories, cover and the pizza oven insert and I was out of there just under $1,000, similar to a high-end propane grill.  Of course I also had a few bags of pellets…

As with a lot of things (which probably makes “unboxing” video’s so popular) you can tell a lot about a product by how it unboxes and sets-up. The GMG was amazing. First off, these are big heavy items, and although the nice folks at the hardware store helped get the grill into my SUV (two-person lift), it was just me at home, and I was impatient and ready to fire it up. So with the help of a furniture dolly I got the box out of my car, and into the back yard. The folks at the store told me to open the box up from the top, remove the contents tucked inside the grill, but then reclose the box, flip it over and open it from the bottom. Wow! It worked great. Inside the grill were the legs and all the hardware I needed, pulled all that out, gently tipped the box onto it’s back and undid it from the bottom. That allowed me to attach the legs easily, while the grill was upside down, and once attached, was able (by myself -although the instructions don’t recommend this) to tip the grill up and stand it on it’s legs, and finish the assembly. Probably took me about 90-minutes in all, I took my time and was careful to follow the instructions. This grill is solid, real metal, solidly built, and it gave me a lot of confidence as I put it together. Instructions were clear, and all the tools I needed were included. Getting the internet connectivity working was a bit of a challenge (more info below), but if you’re reading this blog, you’ve probably already got the basic skills to get it going ok. I wouldn’t leave this to a non-tech person to setup, but of course the grill works fine with local control as well, so you can skip that part if needed, until your tech friend comes to help.

So what are the main differences between a propane bbq and a pellet grill? There are several differences on how they can be used, but here’s some basic “mechanical” differences. As already mentioned, you need a different type of fuel, and 110v electricity. Next, there is a big heavy metal plate between the burning fuel and the food. On my grill there are two plates, both with holes, so you can (if you really want to) align the two plates so the holes are open and direct flame can come through, but I haven’t tried that yet. Next, the big heavy metal plate is sloped, so any drippings or fat drain out the side of the grill into an included small metal bucket. This keeps the grill clean, and flare-ups down (flare-ups are usually fat dripping off your food and igniting). Finally the grills have a chimney, there’s a “flow” for the smoke that starts from the pellet box (air inlet) and goes through the grill and out the top through the chimney. I think this is cool and lets you see a bit of what’s going on without lifting the lid, but it will mean you probably won’t be able to buy a “generic” grill cover, you’ll need to buy the cover that came with the grill.

As I write this, I’ve had the grill for about 3-months, I wanted to get used to it before writing a review, as you often don’t figure-out all the ins-and-outs until you’ve used it for awhile.

First off, I’d highly recommend this grill for just about anyone. I don’t see a downside or a reason where a propane grill would be better. There are some caveat’s (below), but I highly recommend it. Let’s dive into the details:

most importantly for a grill, is that it cooks amazing food. There are lots of recipes online (and even if you don’t purchase a Traeger grill, their app has some great recipe’s) and cookbooks, just seek out “pellet grill” books and recipes. Since I’ve had the grill I’ve cooked steaks, “beer can” chicken, tons of tri-tips, skirt-steak, and a fair bit of chicken. The only thing I haven’t done yet are my famous bbq ribs, hopefully I’ll have an update about those when I get to them.  This type of grill takes a bit longer to warm-up than propane, but maybe only 5-minutes more. You’re not going to have a big heavy open-flame, so if you’re a “char” person, this may not be the type of grill (although it can be configured to allow flames up through the heat shield). So, if you’re looking to keep your “grillmaster” reputation going, you’ll be happy with a pellet grill. Everyone that I know that has one swears by them.

No more pain in the butt propane tanks! Now in the past I’ve had natural gas grills, so no tanks, and they were convenient, but propane tanks are a pain, and you don’t have to deal with them with a pellet grill. You WILL need to have wood pellets, and they are about $20-$30 per bag, in my experience similar cost to propane. The downside of the pellets is they are wood, so you can’t store them outside in the rain (like a propane tank), so make sure to have some space in your garage or shed for a bag or two of pellets.

SMOKE! I wasn’t ever able to hold a low-enough or indirect-enough temperature on a propane grill to truly slow-cook or smoke food. I tried, I used wood chips and trays etc, but these pellet grills are made for making smoke (and cooking hot) so having a pellet grill gives you another entire world of cooking options.

You will need power. This type of grill does need electricity, so you’ll need to plug it in, which could be an issue for some installations, for me, it was no problem, I had an outdoor GFCI outlet about 20-feet away (and I purchased a dark-green outdoor electrical cord to make the cord blend-in). The electricity is used to run the control unit, internet connectivity, auger to push the pellets into the grill, fan to push air in, and a small heater that gets the pellets to light when you first turn-on the grill.

Since the GMG grill has internet connectivity, an app, and a food probe temperature, you’re able to create cooking “profiles” which are essentially a cooking “recipe” based on time, grill temperature, and food temperature. For example, with the turkey I’m smoking as I write this, it’s going to cook at 150 degrees for 2 1/2 hours (that’s the “smoke” setting), and then the grill will increase in temperature to 350 degrees and cook until the turkey internal temperature reaches 160 degrees. This was a simple 2-step profile that I built in the app, and I just put the turkey in the grill (once warmed-up), turned-on the profile, and I can literally be “hands-off” until it’s done (although I’m keeping an eye on it from my iPhone). Why the two temperatures? First, the low temperature gives me that smoky flavor, but won’t get me that crispy tasty skin I like, so the temperature bumps-up to brown the skin later in the process. Smoking comes first, because once the skin is crispy, not as much smoke will be absorbed into the turkey…  Although my profile only has 2-steps, you can build profiles with as many steps as you like, and they can have any combination of grill temperature, food temperature, and time.

Internet connectivity gives you the ability to slow-cook while doing something else at the same time. You can see the temperature of the inside of your grill, and your food (as well as where you are in your profile) from your phone. My GMG can connect via wifi (so while you’re in your home basically) and also has a “server” mode, that allows you to connect from anywhere on the internet. There is a mechanical on/off switch on the grill, so there isn’t any chance anyone could hack into your house and turn your grill on (unless you left it turned-on all the time), and I wouldn’t want to leave raw-meat on my grill to turn it on remotely, so I look at this remote access as a “whoops something unexpected is happening” or a “time to shut it down” remote capability. I haven’t had a ton of luck getting the “server mode” to work on my GMG (more info below) but the wifi has worked really well.

It has an optional pizza oven. I haven’t used it yet, so I’ll have to come-back and give you an update, but since the combustion chamber is very small and both the fuel and air can be managed tightly, it makes for a great pizza oven option. You remove the grates and heat shield, and the pizza oven insert fits right over the combustion chamber, inside the grill. I’ve always wanted an outdoor pizza oven, so I’m excited to now have this ability, with a grill that I already own. (The pizza oven accessory was $199)

So, not everything is perfect (nothing ever is) and it’s always good to share what I learned to do differently, as well as some potential shortcomings of this grill, to help you make a decision whether this is right for you….

The main downfall of this grill is the internet connectivity setup and server-mode reliability. Connecting the grill to the app initially is awkward, and the “server mode” hasn’t worked for me reliably. Since the grill doesn’t know your wifi info when you first turn it on, the way you first set it up is to turn it on and via your phone, connect to the grill as the wifi source initially. Once you’re directly connected to it (so now you’re not on your home wifi) you can use the app to tell the grill what your wifi router name and password is, so it will be able to connect to your own wifi router. Once that’s done, you reconnect your phone to your home wifi, and the grill connects to your home wifi as well, and after a few minutes, your phone app should be able to connect to the grill over your home wifi. Why do this instead of a direct connection? The main reason is that you’ll probably want to use your phone for other things as well (while controlling the grill), so if you’re using your home wifi to connect to the grill, you’ll also have internet connection on your phone to do everything else. The server-mode also connects through your home wifi, but instead of talking directly to your phone app, it sends its information to a server on the internet, and your phone app connects to the same server on the internet, so you can get at the info and control your grill even if you are away from home and not connected to the same wifi as the grill. This would be helpful if you had to run to the hardware store (but hopefully for safety sake someone else is home) and your food is still a long way from being done, you can run-out and keep an eye on what’s happening.  I have not had any good success having this work. I can get it working, but then the next time I go to use the grill, it doesn’t connect and I have to go back to using local wifi control. It may be me misunderstanding something, but if I can’t clearly understand, you may not as well. Since server-mode isn’t super safe and shouldn’t be used very often anyway, I’d rather have this grill (at under $1,000) and have the local wifi control than have something twice the price that may or may not do that well.

UPDATE: It’s been a few weeks and I’ve finally figured-out the Wifi vs Server settings. If you used the grill on “Server” and shut it off, when you start-it up the next time it won’t work. All you need to do is go onto the app and change it to WiFi mode, and it works fine, and you can set it back to “Server” mode once you’ve reconnected. Basically it looks like “Server” mode times-out after the grill hasn’t been used for awhile…

Another potential downfall (as briefly mentioned above) is that you don’t have a lot of open flame. My bbq ribs recipe needs some flame to “caramelize” the sauce, and I haven’t tried that yet on the GMG, so I’m not sure about this one yet. When I’m cooking a steak and I want grill marks I crank the temperature up high, let it warm-up and I’ll have grill marks on the food easily, I’ll try that with the ribs as well, hopefully the high temperature will give me the caramelization I’ll need. Most BBQ chef’s will tell you to “slow down” anyway, and cooking with high-heat and flame is risky, you should be aware that this is a difference.

The final potential downfall is that you can’t just crank-up the grill when you’re done cooking and clean the grates. Also, since the grill temperature is also often low (say 150 degrees) the grates aren’t super hot, so some food can get stuck on them.  The folks at the hardware store recommended that I keep a tray of water under the grill with a drop of dishwasher soap in it. Once I’m done cooking, I use tongs to grab the grate(s), and drop them in the water in the tray. The heat from the grates warms the water, and the warm soapy water cleans the grates. A few hours later, when ready to put the cover on the grill, I grab the grates and wash them in the sink. I throw them back on the grill for next time, put the cover on, and I’m good for next time.  I’ve used the grill probably 15-20 times and the grates look brand new. Of course if you don’t want to do all that you can just clean them afterwards in the sink, steel wool works great.

There are also two big “lessons learned” item I’d like to share with you. First, slow cooking meat usually means it’s dripping fat, etc down into the grill. As I mentioned, the metal plate “heat shield” is angled to direct the drippings into a drip bucket.  My big mistake was not paying attention to recommendations I read to cover the heat shield with aluminum foil. I didn’t initially, and my metal plate got pretty dirty pretty fast, and was VERY hard to clean. That didn’t affect performance, but since I had a new grill, I wanted to keep it clean. I don’t ever want to have to scrub that hard again!  So listen to the recommendations (and mine!) to cover that heat shield with heavy-duty aluminum foil.  Trust-me, you’ll be glad you did. Second, I learned a tip cooking tri-tip I’ve got to share… Cook your tri-tip to 128 degrees, wrap it in aluminum foil and put it in a small cooler (no ice needed!). Leave it in the cooler for an hour to rest before serving. The tri-tip will continue to come-up to temperature, letting it rest means all the juices are re-absorbed into the meat, and even though you’ve let it rest for an hour, it’s still steaming warm and juicy when you carve it. Unbelievable.

So, I do highly recommend this grill. Using a wood pellet grill is a bit different than a propane BBQ. However it gives me many more cooking options, freakishly amazing tri-tip, the ability to slow-cook, and of course, the ability to control it all from an app on my phone.  OK, I’m off to check my turkey… Happy grilling!